willandadri.com

today was the last saturday before Christmas.  our friends in VA and western NC were witness to (and participants in) about 18+ inches of snow.  however, down here – we’re just jumping puddles. 

anticipating bad weather, and a day full of being trapped at home, we slept in and did not worry about missing out on any big plans today.  we’d already run around all week like hurried soldiers attempting to get the packages in the mail, and everything polished off so we would not have to regret missing this weekend.  however, when we woke up we found out that we had no snow, not even a thin blanket of white to cover the grass. 

bahh-humm-bugg. 

will headed off for his hair cut appointment and i headed out to partake in the holiday madness.  we both ran our errands and headed back home for some wrapping of the pressies and just hanging out with the doggies.  we attempted to make beth’s famous biscuits and gravy recipe, but our plans failed horribly when we used sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk.  (some things just do not substitute well.)  i finished up some craft projects and then we rocked out on a rock band world tour.  roanoke better look out cause DS is hitting the road next week, and we’re coming to your town!  after rockin’ till i could sing no more i pestered the doggies to let me snap some shots. 

iliana really gets into it, but amelia is not so good at being still.  she’s got a lot of granny covey in her.

so, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!  we finally got our tree this week.  i was thinking we were going to have to skip a tree this year, but husband really wanted to make it work.  after all, he is right – it does not really feel like Christmas without it.  we’ve been so busy with work lately that we’ve been putting in some really late hours.  i just figured if we did not have it by last weekend, then we should probably skip it.  then thursday night i got a hair brained idea that i would paint the wall where the dry wall repair was holding us back, hang a picture on the wall that i’d been waiting to hang, we could run out and get the tree, and then come home and decorate it.  needless to say, we made it to lowe’s about 10 minutes prior to close and were frantically looking for a tree.  we scored a 9 foot tree and got it loaded up on the car.  we made it back home and planted it in the tree stand with some sugar water (man at lowe’s said this would help it live longer).  decorations finally ended around 1am, but all that matters is that it’s done!

friday kathy came over and worked with lisa and i to wrap up some items on our new project.  after work we planned a cookie baking extravaganza.  kathy had purchased industrial sized bags of flour, sugar, nuts, and chocolate chips.  i had her back with about 8 lbs of butter and 18 eggs.  we quickly got to work busting out some cookies.  lisa made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  kathy made snickerdoodles and snowy butter cookies.  i made cherry chocolate chip and mint chocolate chip cookies.  we had a great time making a huge mess and over 100 cookies!  saturday we’ll all head over to kathy’s house to have a bit of a holiday bash and partake in some of these cookies!

weather forecast for saturday:  rain from va to fl. 

chances of getting the outside of the house decorated for the neighborhood lighting of the houses = slim to none. 

however, around 2pm the rain started to slow and developed into a foggy mist.  will and i donned our gloves and coats and forged on.  we decorated our trees and front porch garlands with 1700 lights.  as we got all of our lights assembled we got the dreaded phone call that the neighborhood lighting of the houses was cancelled due to the bad weather, but we did not fret too much because we still got to push in the plugs. 

december sprung up daisies this year.  not really sure why, but this little guy just sprung into action this week.  we had some sun once this week (its been sparse this fall) and i snapped this little guys photo for his big debut.  drum roll please!

turkey time rolled around faster than normal this year.  it seems like just yesterday we were basking in the sun in the bahamas, and now we’re freezing our fannies off and stuffing turkeys!

we loaded up the car last week and headed out west to waynesville.  will and i were mesmerized by the sunset we encountered on the first part of our journey.  it was the most amazing thing i have ever seen.  however, after the sun went down it was just traffic, darkness, and tail lights.  the dogs behaved themselves in the car, despite the unbearable stop and go traffic we encountered on 40 west.  we pigged out on some junk food that i always justify eating when i am in the car on a road trip.  somehow that bag of spree just did not count when i was in the car.  thank goodness i do not take road trips often.  we arrived in waynesville around 10pm and got the 23lb bird into the brine.

after the turkey brining experience we headed into the living room so ethan could let us open our “on-line purchase” of a bouncy ball off his website.  i scored the lime green bouncy ball a few weeks back but could not justify mailing in the quarter so i told him we would do the exchange around turkey time.  ethan had wrapped the ball up inside a “free” yellow display kit, included two free game cards, and an invoice.  we got a kick out of the whole thing.

thursday morning came quickly and we got up to start the festivities.  we helped ma white prepare all of the thanksgiving fare and got the turkey in the oven.  we watched the asheville parade while we were covered to our elbows in tasty morsels.  pa white supplied us all with delicious wines so we could really get the celebration going.  when lunch time came we were certainly ready to partake in all of the yummy goodness!  we had quite the feast!  pa white carved the juicy and delicious turkey and set it on the table with green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, stuffed militon, cranberry sauce, carrot souffle, cranberry salad, waldorf salad, asparagus, deviled eggs (or as ethan would call them – “eggs with the devil in them”), and shrimp cocktail.  yummo!  we all stuffed ourselves until we could hardly waddle away from the table.

later that night we enjoyed each other’s company while playing some board games.  its so hilarious to hear your seven year old nephew pronounce words that you do not even understand the meaning to.  that kid is brilliant.  funny too.  we had all the fun we could stand, and called it a night.

friday morning we slept in and for once, i did not go out to get my bargain hunting on.  i checked in with dad a few times during the day to see how his bargain shopping was going, but he was disappointed with his finds.  bummer.  after we got up we headed into downtown asheville to the grove park inn.  its an annual tradition that at either thanksgiving or christmas, we head on over to check out the gingerbread houses.  this year we got to partake in their most amazing lunch buffet in the blue ridge dining room.  the views of the mountains are amazing and we really enjoyed the spread.  meri got her fill of cherries and i think i ate my weight in lobster bisque and smoked salmon.  after lunch we headed out to the large porch on the back of the inn to sit in the sunshine and enjoy the view.  will and i always love this relaxing time.  after hanging out and watching the kids run off some energy, we all headed inside to view the gingerbread house winners.  ethan made sure to snap a photo of every single gingerbread house, and it was a very serious matter.  we’ve got quite a little photographer on our hands!

saturday morning we headed with lynn and the kids to the sapphire mines.  here we watched them dig through a pickle bucket of dirt to locate some actual sapphires.  meri was about done with the entire project in about 10 minutes, but ethan could have sat there looking for “gems” for an eternity.  he really liked me taking photos of his finds.    later that evening will, lynn, pa white, and myself headed out to a pub for some kool-aids.  everyone else settled in on their favorite beers, and i went for my favorite vodka tonic.  i had a craving for nachos (i do not know where these things come from, but i just have to go with them), but the catch was that the nachos had to have EXTRA jalapenos.  pa white was on my team and helped me search up and down main street for a pub that had nachos with jalapenos on the menu.  so, when we ordered our kool-aids i told the waitress i also wanted the LARGEST PLATE OF NACHOS she’d ever seen, along with EXTRA JALAPENOS!  she politely obliged and delivered.  we all loved our crazy pub food and beverages and had some great bonding time.

sunday came quickly and we packed up all of our possessions and headed back across the state – thankful for another year together – thankful for each other – thankful for family – thankful for love – thankful for life – thankful for what’s to come.

saturday was a fun day.  we set our alarm early for saturday morning so we could crawl out of bed and head down town to the raleigh christmas parade.  strange, i know – a christmas parade in november.  the funny thing is that i was just telling will earlier in the week that i wanted to make sure we did not miss the raleigh parade since we were not aware of it last year.  then thursday night i turned on the news and the weather man announced that saturday was going to be a perfect day for the parade!  wowsie!  well, thankfully we caught it – early or not.

we arrived down town, gathered our mocha  latte, and headed into the crowd to find a cozy stance to watch the bands, balloons, floats, and animals parade down the street.   we found a pretty good spot in front of the wachovia building and settled in.  there was a myriad of different floats, a couple balloons, stunt artists, dance crews, collections of horses/tractors/harleys/cars, bands, and some amazing jump ropers.  we really had a good time watching all of this craziness going down the road.  after the parade we had to run some errands before we could gear up for the roller derby that evening.

around 4pm we headed back downtown to the dorton arena to watch our first roller derby.  i’ve been drawn to these bad asses for some time now.  there is just something amazing to me about these gals gearing up and laying it all out to skate their butts off.  we prepped for the event by going to see “whip it” a couple months ago and were ready by knowing the rules and what the point was before we got there.  one thing we later learned was that we could sit on the floor right beside the track.  we figured this out during the first part of the game, but the good spots were all taken, so we shuffled in behind some other people and kept inching forward as people moved, or got up to get a funnel cake.  next time, i will be there front row with my lawn chair – on the front line.  yeah, you run the risk of getting a skate to the face, but its a really intense game – and if you are gonna go you should make it the best.

we were a wee bit disappointed with the first match between the raleigh bootleggers and the alabama dixie derby allstars.   we got creamed by the dixie derby gals, and the moves were not so dramatic as we had hoped for.  however, the second match between the raleigh allstars and the pennsylvania steel city derby demons started out very similarly.  the first jammer to break out was for the pa team and she raked in a fast 25 points.  scary indeed.  however, it was not too long before the raleigh gals made a come back.  for a while the raleigh team was on top, and then we lost it again back to pa.  it bounced back and forth a couple times.  however, with 4 minutes left in the game the raleigh girls were down 20 points.  we thought we were in the crapper.  however, just when all hope was lost we made a come back, an amazing comeback.  everyone in the auditorium stood up and cheered as our girl “holly wanna crakya” kept breaking through time and time again.  then, with seconds to spare she scored the last series of points that pushed the score for the win – 144 to 143!  it was unbelievable!  everyone was going nuts!  after the game the raleigh roller girls do a spin by to give you a high five (sort of like you did when you played little league in elementary school), but i was super jazzed to be able to high five all of these kick ass skater chicks.  super cool.

after the roller derby we headed to five star down town for some dinner.  we’ve wanted to try it out for a while now, and had not found a good time to go, so we figured with all of the turkey coming up next week we should go ethnic for the dinner.  we really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food.  will definitely go back!

we definitely had an amazingly fun day!

this past weekend was a total downer.  sure we got to go to the park on saturday afternoon for an hour, but other than that we’ve been up to our eyeballs in tissues and tussin.

will thought for sure on saturday night that he had just a head cold, but by monday he figured he had h1n1.  we called the doctor to get him an appointment and they saw him on tuesday and confirmed (thankfully) that it was just a sinus infection.  these days we’re happy about sinus infections, so long as we do not get blessed with anything worse.  i was feeling fine until yesterday around 7pm, and then like a ton of bricks it hit me.  i felt terrible.  it seemed to have come in with the latest rain storm that was brewing up more mold spores in my back yard.  it seems we cannot escape this water logged feeling lately, and my allergies are living proof of the suffering.  today i am totally doped up on benadryl, mucinex, allegra, claratin, and vitamins.  i am a total advocate for vitamin water saving me everytime.  (thank goodness they make it now in reduced sugar versions.)

we were so bummed out for a sickly weekend because we had plans to go to newport news and meet caleb kaplan for the first time.  we have been dying to meet the new little guy, but were so nervous that we’d infect him with our toxic germs we had to remain at home.  i hate cancelling plans.  but what can you do?  we just hung around the house and tried to lay low.

with tissues stuck up our noses, will noticed that the christmas cactus that jen and daniel gave us last christmas was starting to bloom!  its really amazing since we are the WORST caregivers of plant life on this earth, and we’ve never had something hit the 1 year “happy birthday” to you plant time.  i snapped some shots to have printed proof that we can, if we try our best, keep a plant alive and well. 

amelia also wanted to share some pictures of us hanging out in the foyer on saturday afternoon.  she’s got mad jumping skills.  who needs air jordans?

it’s been raining since tuesday.  lots of rain.  raining hard.  even when you thought it was hardly raining, it was still coming down.   we were about to get moldy and turn into mushrooms.

then, finally – today it stopped, the sun came out and we were able to go outside.

glorious.

we took the doggies to the park and trotted them around.  they were in heaven.  they loved to check out where all of the other doggies had been and made sure to empty their bladders on every blade of grass.  when illy decided she needed to be picked up – we knew it was time to go home.

then, this evening we caught another amazing sunset!

A new park opened up right across capitol a few months back.  We drive past the park every time we’re headed down town and finally got a chance to stop by this past weekend.  The park is huge and has a ton of things to occupy everyone.  They have some historical landmarks, jungle gyms for the kids, large adult sized swings on walking trails, and an amphitheatre.  Husband and I walked the paths and got a good look at the steeple on the Baptist church down town.  I loved the view of the skyline with just the steeple visible from the hill top.

the sun rises and sets every day.  some days we are lucky enough to witness it.  some days it is so spectacular you just have to be thankful for the colors painted along the skyline, because even if you planned it out, you could not have created something so magical.  here was the view from our front porch last night.  thanks to lori, i caught it.

will and i were fortunate enough that he heard about discounted casting crowns tickets while rockin’ out to the radio last week, and was able to get us an awesome deal on some tickets to the concert at the RBC center.  i checked on-line for the tickets a few months back and saw they were about $70 each.  knowing that we did not have that kind of cashola to splurge on some concert tickets around the holidays i figured we would just have to catch the show next time they were in town.  then, when husband found the great deal, he surprised me with the ticket purchase!

casting crowns is husband’s all time favorite!  he turned me on to them about a year ago when he started heavily listening to christian radio on his car rides to and from work.  so many of their songs really have powerfull messages that hit you right in your spirit, right where you need it. 

the concert was everything we hoped it would be and really made the words of our favorite songs hit even closer to home. 

we wanted to share our favorite:

Praise You in This Storm
Words by Mark Hall/Music by Mark Hall & Bernie Herms

I was sure by now, God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it’s still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
“I’m with you”
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus

took the dogs out tonight and saw a wonderful moon rising.  it’s amazing to me how it can rise so quickly.  within 15 minutes the moon had gone from just above the horizon to far up in the eastern night sky.  just looking up and watching it makes you feel so small.

here are some photos that really don’t do it justice, but i had to share in the experience.

I felt terrible Thursday night and thought for sure I was coming down with the HINI.  I tried to sleep but couldn’t but I made sure to dose up on Vitamin C, Zinc, Echinacea, and called out sick for Friday.  I slept all most all of Friday, and actually felt a lot better on Saturday morning.  Thanks to 20 hours of sleep on Friday, we had a great Halloween!

Late Friday night, when I finally felt up to it, we carved our pumpkins.  Will was in charge of gut removal, and coming up with one face design.  I was charged with the actual carvings.   Both pumpkins turned out super cute, and we really had a lot of fun making them!  We woke up late on Saturday and Will made a delicious breakfast for us before we began our day of chores.  We had to get some things accomplished before we could party the night away!  We made peanut butter stuffed chocolate chip cookies for a party at Kathy’s house to watch “Paranormal Activity”.  The movie is supposed to be similar to the type of film we saw with the “Blair Witch Project”, under the guise that it is supposed to have “really” happened.  However, before we went to that party we were supposed to head across the street to Kevin’s for a neighborhood Halloween Party.  For that party we made little fudgey brownies covered in alternating orange and purple sprinkles.  We also had to run a few errands and clean up the kitchen from all of this cooking!

It was raining when we got up and I felt badly that the little kiddos were not going to have a very fun trick-or-treating night, but by around about 1pm the skies cleared up and made way for a perfect afternoon and evening.  By about 6pm we went ahead and lit our candles in our jack-o-lanterns so the little kids would know we were open for business.  we waited and waited, but it was not until about 7pm that we got the first surge of doorbell ringers.  The first few rings of the door bell resulted in doggie chaos madness where Will was trying to hunt down the dogs and scoop them up so they would not lunge at the kids as I passed out the candy.  Then we came up with a plan.  We leashed the doggies up so Will could hold the leashes and keep the doggies away from the children, while not keeping him, or the doggies locked up somewhere.  This way everyone got to participate.  Lots of kids came this year, but mostly in large groups.  There were lots of Transformers, Princesses, Kitties, Hannah Montanas, and Belly Dancers.  All of the kids were thankful and excited to be out trick-or-treating.  Even a  group of 3 4-year old Transformers told me “Trick-or-Treat, Smell my Feet, Give me Something Good to Eat!”  Too cute.  After trick-or-treating we packed up our gear and headed across the street to Kevin’s house.  Kevin and Paige had gone all out with a fire pit, chairs, tents, a slide show, drinks for kids and adults, hot dogs, chips, and desserts galore.  They even had a bunch of hay bales for the kiddos to search for candy in!  Everyone had a great time, and we got to catch up with a bunch of the neighbors.  After some time at this event we had to load up the car and head over to Kathy’s for the movie night.  We arrived at about 9:15 and pulled into the drive way.  As we made our way inside we were greeted by 2 serial killers, a grim reaper, and a vampire!  The kids had gotten back into their Halloween attire to put on a fright-night!  Thankfully I did not drop the plate of cookies!  After we made it inside we settled in for some corn dogs (Thanks Oprah), chips and dips, and desserts.  We filled our bellies and showed off our funny little costume.  Will was “DSDV”, my guitar hero, and I was his number 1 fan.  We took some pictures earlier in the night to show off the funny attire.  Everyone prepared for the movie.  We sat in anticipation as the movie dragged on and on.  There were a couple of creepy parts, but nothing to warrant all of the hype.  All of us were seriously let down by this one, but thankful we had not paid full ticket price to see it in the theatre!  It was late and we had a long drive back home, so after the movie we packed up and headed back  out.  We made it home and made sure to set the clocks back so we would not get up any earlier than we had to!  We needed all the sleep we could get after that long day!

we loaded up the car and headed to NOVA this past weekend.  we stayed for three nights with the mcconnells and visited with them and will’s sister’s family.  we had three fun filled days full of great food, playing with the niece and nephew, and hanging out with some great friends!

thursday night we finally got on the road out of wake forest around 7:50PM.  we stopped to get gas and then headed up route 1 to 85 and made our way to 95, all the while making pretty excellent time.  we did not really hit a snag until we screeched to a hault on 495 before the 66 interchange.  seems they decided it would be a great idea to close the formerly 6 lane route down to 1 lane at nights.  texted melanie and she confirmed we were in for a long stretch of stop and go, and that we had best avoid 66 for the exact same reason.  will and i made our way off 495 at the next viable exit and were headed to fairfax via 236 LRT, when we had to make a quick change and head to annandale – WHY? – well, you see they decided they would also close the exit ramp off 495 to Fairfax via LRT, so we had to get off in the wrong direction and find some place to make a U-turn.  What a mess?  will and i just kept reminding ourselves why we moved away from all of this wonderfulness!  we finally made it to centerville around 1am.

melanie and nick greeted us with open arms and hot lasagna!  delish!  i could not believed they stayed up until we got there!  i forced them to stay up even longer to listen to our traffic woes and then we all finally went to bed around 2am.  you know me, i never sleep in a bed that is not my own, so i stayed up  counting the hours till time to head to work.  will went to spend friday with his sister and meridith while i worked at the office.  all of the ops people headed to lunch at cee’s thai in fairfax, so we had a good ole time yapping it up before it was time to get back to the grind.  work was good and after everything was wrapped up we headed out for some dinner at a steakhouse later.

nick tried to convince us all that the restaurant we were at (Texas Roadhouse) was the place where you sat on a saddle and got a huge “YEEEHAAWWW” for your birthday.  unfortunately, we could not get anyone to saddle up and claim it was their birthday for the evening.  on the way out the door we all got a good look at the saddle by the meat counter.   perhaps if we had consumed a frosty beverage we could have pulled it off!  after dinner we headed to the movies.  “the hangover” was playing at the $4 theatre and mel and nick were flabbergasted when they found out that will and i had not seen the movie before, so we made it to the theatre in time to laugh our butts off!  (if you have not seen it, add it to your queue.)

saturday morning we got up bright and early to make it over to the witwer’s in time for the kid’s soccer and baseball games.  sadly, it started to rain just as we made it to the fields.  the boys hung out at ethan’s baseball game while the girls drove across town to reston to watch meri kick around the soccer ball.  after about 20 minutes out in the rain meri decided that this was not all it was cracked up to be and we headed back to herndon to meet up with the boys.  apparently the rain was following the girls around town and after about 30 minutes of watching ethan’s team play ball this game was rained out.  we all re-grouped and got the kids changed so we could run out to lunch.  will and i voted for taste of saigon and lynne agreed that would be delicious!  beef in grape leaves, imperial rolls, and two orders of black pepper seafood really hit the spot!  yummay!  after lunch we headed out for some bowling.  the kids really showed off their skills and we all ended up with pretty similar scores…  meri decided that aunt anne and uncle will should really be “horsies” and should trot her on their laps between every bowl.  by about round 5 our legs were wobbly like jello.  after dashing through the rain, back out to the car we realized that will’s cell phone was mia.  i called the number and we found that the phone was laying on the back bumper of the car the entire time we were bowling, while it was raining cats and dogs.  luckily, by sunday night, his phone had dried out and was working again!  (thank goodness considering it is the 4th phone of this model he has had since last year!)  after bowling we headed back to lynne’s house for meri to open her belated birthday present.  she opened the box and exclaimed “how did you know i love blue!?!?!”  too cute!  she was in love with her tiny treasure trove and proceeded to try everything in the box on and do some modeling for us.  very reminiscent of lori.  after the prizes we hit the trails to meet up with nick and mel for dinner reservations.

after we got out of our waterlogged attire and redressed for dinner we headed to the melting pot in arlington.  a fun fondue time was had by all as we tempted ourselves with the alpine big night out.  dinner was full of cheesy, oooey, goooey, goodness!  after dinner we met up with jason (baby BARE) over at artie’s in fairfax.  he showed off his new car (after my insistance) and we all chatted to catch up.  some people came in saying they had been across the street and it was a real “cougar den” at renee’s.  melanie and jason were brave enough to go in and check it out, but after they found out there was a $10 cover charge, they made the next “legal u-turn” and we headed home.

sunday morning we were exhausted and hit snooze on the proverbial alarm clock about 400 times!  once we finally drug ourselves out of bed melanie treated us to a yummy breakfast in centerville.  we all enjoyed waffles and pancakes with our cappuccinos that really hit the spot!  once we made it back to melanie’s we loaded up the car, said our goodbye’s and scampered down the road as fast as we could so we could make it back to the boarding facility to pick up the sisters.  we made it back just in time, with about 5 minutes to spare.

now if we could just take a nap, we’d be good to go again soon!

went out for lunch today to enjoy the gorgeous nc fall weather!  it was 75 without a cloud in the sky!  fantastic, for sure!

while sitting outside the coffee shop enjoying my dirty chai tea latte i spotted this – something i had never seen before – graffiti in wake forest.

most of the time if you said that you found graffiti somewhere you might get upset or be scared of what photo was going to be attached to this statement.  however, before you make a judgement that all graffiti is bad, just know that i found this peacefully sweet.

i love this town.